Blueberries Abound!

Last weekend we finally got to go to the cabin and spend the night!

Last month when we were there, the blueberries were looking pretty good, but I didn't want to get too excited about them (yet), since I was left disappointed for the last two years.

But this time I brought along two Ziploc bins with me, just in case!

And to my delight, this is what we found in a little patch right next to the "driveway" that leads up to the cabin.

Oh my!  I just HAD to go check out our other two patches that we regularly pick from, and sure enough, they were all decorated with these little blue ornaments.

Well, I knew right away what I was gonna be doing the next morning after breakfast!!

Friday evening went kinda fast.  Chuck mowed the lawn while I heated up some water for some coffee and tea.

I have no idea why I thought it would be a good idea to take a picture of our water kettle, but there ya go.  Now you know what it looks like.  It ain't very pretty, but it's practical, cheap, and efficient.  

After we ate our grilled hot dogs, we went traipsing through the woods to look for more blueberry patches.  We looked for the ones that we knew were there, and then looked for some that we didn't know about.  We found LOTS of patches, and tied some orange tape around the nearby trees so we could find them again later.

Check this out!  Can you believe all these berries??  We found this patch just off the edge of our property line. (Technically, it was on the other side of the property line.) This poor branch was so heavy with berries, it was screaming "Help me!"  I knew I was gonna be going back to that spot again the next morning.

  We kept walking around on our ten acres and kept finding more patches, some small and some really big, and tied up more orange tape whenever we came to another patch - all filled with berries!  We won't be able to pick them all this year!

And that is what happens when you pray for berries!!

So the next morning after cleaning up our breakfast mess, we began picking.  We started with that little patch next to the "driveway".  That patch wasn't very big, but there were so many berries in that one patch alone, we spent a long time there.  I kept thinking about those thick berries next to the property line and we finally went over there to fill up our bins.  Unfortunately I only brought along two bins.  Do you know how hard it is to stop picking when you keep seeing more beautiful blue berries every time you turn around?  But alas, our bins were full!  But we decided to keep picking until our berry pickers were full.  Soon those were full too, and we were forced to stop and leave all those other berries behind.

Chuck has this Friday off.  Can you guess where we will be and what we will be doing?

We got home Saturday late afternoon, so I plopped my berries on the kitchen counter and went outside to check the garden veggies.  I soon realized I was faced with a big job of harvesting, and I knew I was to spend the next 2 days in the kitchen.

  

Blueberries to sort, wash, and freeze; catnip to dry, flowering broccoli (can I still use it?); peas to shell.  And what to do with all that zucchini?

I was feeling a bit overwhelmed looking at it all, but decided to start with the catnip cuz that would only take a few minutes.  I tied them in bundles and hung them up to dry.

I let Beanie chew on one of the catnip leaves.

The broccoli was easy.  I just put it in the fridge for now to deal with later.

Chuck helped me shell the peas later that evening while we were watching a show on Netflix.

As for the blueberries, I have to deal with those in batches because I can only fit so many at a time in the freezer (they have to be frozen in a single layer on a sheet before I can put them in baggies.)  Because of that, it can take days to get them all in baggies, so it's probably better if I don't bring too many bins to the cabin with me (some of them might start to go bad before I get to them.)

Here is a little worm I found in the blueberries.

Don't worry, my berries are very carefully sorted through before they make it to the freezer.  First I soak them in salt water to find the worms, then I scoop them up in my hand and manually sort through them to get rid of all the ones that are mushy, scarred, misshapen, blemished, or just plain  "funny" looking.  All berries must pass my rigid inspection process!!!

A few minutes after I took this picture, the worm was gone!

I wonder where that little fella went?

Don't get grossed out by the worms.

It's not unusual to find one or two, and seeing as these are wild berries, I think only one or two worms is pretty good!

Now the zucchini.  Another year of picking zucchini quicker than I know what to do with it.  So this year I am trying something new that will use up a lot of zucchini.  

Zucchini Pickles

This is my first time making these, but they smelled good when I made them, so both me and Chuck are anxious to try them.  If they turn out good, then this will be a regular thing for me.  I want to open one tonight, but I don't know how long they have to sit in that brine before they are considered "done".  Does it take days?  Weeks?  Or are they ready right now?

We just might have to break one open and find out.

So, you can probably get a pretty good idea that I am going to be pretty busy now for the next few weeks as we are getting into the harvest season.

The Lord is truly blessing us this year!